House # 19

House # 19

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After the Mr. got back from his stint in S. Korea, he was assigned to Ft. Hood TX. The town it’s next to is Killeen TX.  We did live in government housing right there on base in one of the Villages for family housing. It was called Chaffee Village.

I don’t have any good photos of the outside of the house, but this first one is from a google search. Ours looked like this, where it was brick and siding, with a large divided type window. There were two houses connected by a carport.

The second photo is one I took of our front windows. It looks like the girls had taped up Halloween decorations on the window panes.

We lived in this house for almost 10 years. We liked it fine. There were three bedrooms, a large living room/dining room combo, a kitchen, and two bathrooms. We had a huge back yard which we had fenced in, and a couple of large trees in the back yard. One was more of a huge bush that had pretty white flowers growing on it in the summer.

We had a patio where we cooked out sometimes, too. All the neighbors were friendly and all the kids in the neighborhood knew each other and would roam around everywhere. There were activities for all on base. We really liked living here.

A couple of things we got used to by living on a large Army base was helicopters flying over, sometimes landing right by the road, seeing tanks driving down the road was common, the bugle playing of reveille in the early mornings, the playing of taps in the evenings, and soldiers marching here and there.

We also got used to hearing the cannons booming and our windows rattling when the troops were out in the field for training.

One strange incident that happened on more than one occasion was with our phone. It was a phone hung on the wall, with an extra long curly cord. Sometimes this phone’s receiver would just shoot out from the base of the phone, the cord stretched all the way across the room. The phone wasn’t broken at all, and you’d think if it was, it would just drop down to the floor. But no, this was forcefully thrown of it’s own accord. Never knew when it would happen, and just lucky we weren’t hit with it, though we’d just be sitting there when it happened.

Well, I can’t tell ten years of memories in one post here, so moving on … the Mr. retired from the Army after his last overseas post, which was Somalia. The girls and I just stayed here while he was gone.

Then it was time to move again … and we went back to our home town for the last three houses.

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Thanks for visiting! Peace ☮️

© 2021 BS

House # 18

House # 18

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The next house we moved to was in Beeville Texas, which is still in the southern part of the state. It wasn’t all that far from the last house, in Sinton, but still in a different city near the coast. The Mr. still worked at the Army Reserve Center in Sinton, just he had to travel a bit farther from this next house to get there.

I don’t have a good picture that I took myself of the house, just this one where I googled the address. It was I guess what you’d call an apartment? There were blocks of houses – 4 each, scattered around. This also shows the parking lot. Ours was in this brick building, but on the far side on the ground floor. There was a little side road beside us, too.

It had two bedrooms, a living room/dining room, a kitchen, a bath, and a laundry room. I think they were fairly new buildings, and pretty nice. We didn’t have carpets and it wasn’t furnished. We did have the pieces of furniture we already had, and we finally got rid of that huge sofa, and bought new living room couch, chair, coffee table, and end tables. Actually we still have the tables we use even now.

This housing area belonged to the government, as  in the Chase Naval Air Station. The actual base was 4 miles up the road, where all the planes, offices, hospital, commisary, library, and all were. There were more housing there, too.

Beeville is a small -ish town, not bad at all. I loved going to the library there. Well, every single place we lived, one of the first places I’d find was the library. Of course! haha 🙂

One thing everyone did here was take empty jugs, travel up to the base, and fill them with water. There was a spigot that everyone used. It’s because the local tap water was way too salty. I guess the water on the base came from a different place, because it was nice tasting water. As far as I know back then there were not those special water filling places like you see everywhere these days.

Let’s see what else … In the evenings I could look out the back door and see bats emerging from the attic vents in the houses across the way. We were here when there was a total, or mostly total eclipse of the sun happened. Very eerie when going from bright sunlight, to darkness in the middle of the morning! It was like a hush came over the land, so quiet … the birds settled down to sleep, and the street lights came on. Then of course the sun came back out and all went on as normal.

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Next time: The girls and I move back home to my parents house for a year, because the Mr.’s next duty assignment was to South Korea.

I don’t know that that counts. It was another move, but to the same house I grew up in.

After that year, we moved on down to Killeen TX, and Fort Hood Army base housing.

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Thanks for visiting! Peace ☮️

© 2021 BS

House # 17

House # 17

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This is the next house we moved to. It was in Sinton, in south Texas. It is 16 miles from Corpus Christie TX and the Gulf of Mexico and the beaches.

Basically this house was a trailer house, but permanently settled. It had two bedrooms, a kitchen and a living room, and a laundry room. It was okay, and I guess we lived there at least a year.

The Mr. had been assigned to running the Army Reserve Center there.

The second photo shows the back of the house (the first one I googled the address).

We had a huge banana tree in the back yard, and also a peach tree. That was so fun picking bananas from the tree each morning to have with our cereal. One time the Mr. brought in a bunch and a long green snake fell out into the kitchen floor. Well, me and the girls screamed and ran! haha 🙂

We’d also see roadrunners in the back yard, and the railroad tracks were pretty close behind our house, too. The girls would wave to the engineer and conductor when it passed by.

And … there were hobos! Hobos would jump off the train and come to the back door to ask for food. I’d make them a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and they’d be very grateful and be on their way.

I also had my first encounter with fire ants! They were everywhere, and man can they bite! You had to be careful of where you were standing, because they’d swarm up your feet and legs and latch on. Very painful!

We also had to get ready for a hurricane that was possibly going to come to Corpus Christi. Being so close to the coast even we had to prepare. We were lucky though, as it veered another direction and didn’t hit us. I think it came ashore more toward Houston that time.

Oh, another thing … we had some furniture with us this time. We had the same big old couch, a coffee table, and a rocking chair that used to belong to my mom & dad. We had a nice refrigerator, and beds for everyone. Yay! The only thing we didn’t have was a stove, but though one came with this rent house, it didn’t work at all. The landlord kept saying he’d get us another one, but it took forever, like right before we moved again, we finally got a working one.

So, I had to cook everything in the microwave. It worked out pretty good though. We did have an electric popcorn popper  – a stir crazy – that had a heated place, so I’d fry eggs on there, or make pancakes on it. So weird, but it worked.

First photo is the front of the house (I googled to find it, as I didn’t have a photo)

Second photo I took of the back of the house showing the big banana tree that was taller than the house. There came a freak freeze in the winter and it destroyed the banana tree. So sad.

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Next up we get government housing again in Beeville TX (still in south Texas)

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Thanks for visiting! Peace ☮️

© 2021 BS

House # 15 & 16

House # 15 & 16

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So, we came back from Japan and the Mr. was assigned back to Ft. Sill Oklahoma. We lived in the town of Lawton, which was right outside the post. While he was getting situated, the girls and I stayed back home with my parents until he could find us a house.

But the first one he found was so awful! We’d had everything shipped to this horrible house, but we didn’t stay there but a very short time. We just had to find something better. I mean, this house was filthy, the carpets sticky and trashy, I didn’t want to touch anything, much less let the girls in there. And the bedroom windows were falling out at the slightest touch. Ugh!!

So we finally found another place which was very much nicer. This one in the photo below.

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I looked on Google Street Maps to find the address we lived at back then. Of course this is many years later in this picture, but it sure looks familiar. I know it was a white brick house, and there was a pine tree in the front yard. The tree sure has grown!

This house had three bedrooms, a bath, living room and kitchen/dining room and a garage. The back yard was large and fenced in. We were here for I’m sure a year or more.

The house was not furnished. It was a rent house though, and had a stove and a small kind of old fashioned refrigerator. I think it had a kitchen table and four chairs. We had no furniture to bring with us from Japan, either, except for my youngest girl’s baby crib. The rest of us slept on the floor, and just sat on boxes in the living room.

Finally, awhile later on, my cousin sent a big overstuffed couch and a funny large brown chair, by my uncle in Oklahoma City when he came by one day. I don’t know how to describe that chair. It was fuzzy kind of material, and had a sloping kind of shape? the kids liked to use it for a slide. haha! Awhile later we did manage to get beds.

We didn’t have a washer or dryer, so I’d either take clothes to the laundromat, or I’d wash everything in the sink on a rub board, and hang it all out on the clothesline to dry.

We had a huge honeysuckle vine right outside the kitchen window. It smelled so good, so I’d leave the window open.

My oldest girl started pre-school there in town, and had a few friends in the neighborhood. One’s big sister (they lived behind our house) would play her stereo loud all the time, mostly “Another One Bites the Dust” by Queen!

~ next up we move to south TX

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Thanks for visiting! Peace ☮️

© 2021 BS

House # 14 – Japan

House # 14 – Japan

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I finally found the picture of the house we lived in on the Army housing area in Japan!

Sagamihara, Japan … As a military family for over 20 years, my husband was stationed at Camp Zama, Japan. We lived almost two years here, in government housing. Japan is a beautiful country, with mountains, forests, and the ocean. We experienced one of the largest typhoons recorded at the time, while we were there, Typhoon Tip, and many earthquakes shook the place, quite often.

This is the post I wrote about the typhoon:

SUPER TYPHOON TIP…CAT 5

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Our house on the Army housing base had two bedrooms, a living/dining room, one bath, and a small kitchen. It was on the end of a group of four – ours one story, two 2 story ones in the middle, and another one story house on the other end. It was furnished already with the usual things you need, like beds, couch and chair, stove, refrigerator – all those kinds of things.

Right behind us was a large yard with tall trees, and a tennis court. Beyond that was a short walk to the small commisary/grocery store, and I’m thinking the movie theater and a library was there, too.

We had nice neighbors, and on weekends everyone would get together for cook outs. It didn’t matter if it was hot weather, snowy weather, or typhoon rainy weather, we’d be out there at the grill.

Sometimes the girls and I would get on a bus and go to the actual base. It was located aways from the housing area. There we would be able to go to the big commisary, the PX, places to eat, a thrift store, well, like a mall to shop in.

Other times we’d go just outside our housing area and basically be in Tokyo, the suburbs of it any way. Sometimes we’d take the train into the city proper to shop, and go to authentic Japanese restaurants. Well, it was all new experiences for us.

We lived here for about two years, and we sure enjoyed it. There are so many things to remember about our time in Japan, but would take pages and pages to tell. We do have lots of photos, but they all have people in them – sorry, I don’t post them.

Next – back to the states and another house.

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Thanks for visiting! Peace ☮️

© 2021BS

House # 13

House # 13

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So, after we left east TX, my husband went back into the Army. He’d have to take a refresher course (or whatever you call it) which would take a few weeks.

My daughter and I went back to stay with my parents at the old homestead I grew up in. It was nice to get back home, even for a little while.

After his refresher training, he was assigned to the Army post at Ft. Riley Kansas. He found us a place to live, and me and my girl moved up there.

It was just a regular trailer house in a mobile home park, in Junction City Kansas. It was okay. We made some friends, had barbeques, played cards, and the usual things we do from day to day.

Sorry, I have photos, but they all have people in them, and I don’t post family and friend photos on here.

A couple of things I remember about this time:

It was very cold in the winter! I know we have snow in TX but it doesn’t last long. However here in Kansas it seemed the snow came before Thanksgiving and never melted off until after Valentine’s Day! I remember it finally, finally got up to 32 degrees F (freezing temp) and people were out in their summer clothes it felt so warm.

The summer was very hot, too, and that year there was a bumper crop of grasshoppers. They were everywhere – just hordes of them.

And … I found out I was expecting another baby! 🙂

Next up – time to move back home for a little while.

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Thanks for visiting! Peace ☮️

© 2021 BS

House # 11 & 12

House # 11 & 12

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These next two rental houses were the next ones we lived in in east TX. Both had one bedroom, living room, kitchen and bath.

I don’t have actual pictures of that time we were there, so again I googled the addresses on street maps and these were what came up. They look familiar, though it’s been 45 years since we were there.

I know we had to fix up some kind of fence in back for the dogs. There were possums living underneath them, too.

I only stayed home taking care of our baby.

Otherwise I don’t remember much about these places except the first place the landlady was awful and mean. We didn’t stay there long.

The next place was around the corner, and a little better. I remember a really pretty tree that had white flowers growing on it. Don’t know what kind it was.

Wish I could remember more about these – guess I blanked it out because I didn’t much like these.

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Next we move back to our hometown to my parent’s house. The Mr. decided to get back in the Army.

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Thanks for visiting! Peace ☮️

© 2021 BS

 

House # 10 – Buying, Basset, & Baby!

House # 10 – Buying, Basset, & Baby!

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This is the house we bought I think in 1975 or 1976.

I thought I had a photo of it when we lived there, but couldn’t find it. So I looked on Google Street Map and found it, though it looks a little different now.

Whatever that thing in the front is, I don’t know. We didn’t have that out there. Anyway, it was a nice house at the time, with two bedrooms, one bath, living room, and a kitchen. It had a huge fenced back yard, too.

We still had our dog, Freckles, and our long time parakeet Igor, though he didn’t live very much longer. We also got another dog, a Basset Hound puppy we named Bridget. I’d actually seen her advertised at a pet shop, and we went and got her.

I had a job at the Tupperware distribution center, and the Mr. had a couple of jobs. He still painted houses and buildings with his friend (and his father), and also worked at night driving to all the cotton gins in the area delivering and collecting cotton samples.

Then we found we were expecting a baby in August of 1976. Wonderful! 🙂

We went about our usual day to day business, and we’d take the dogs for walks in the nearby park, too, and all the neighbors were friendly.

I got fired from my job, because they found out I was pregnant. They ‘said’ it was because they were updating their way of doing things and my job wouldn’t be needed any more, but they lied. Oh well, I didn’t mind that much, as I wanted to concentrate on becoming a mom.

My husband got another better job about then, too. He became the assistant pro golfer at the country club in town. He’s always been an avid golfer and this job suited him fine.

Then … for some reason he decided we’d go back to east TX so he could work with his dad again, and also mechanic work for a trucking company. I hated to move again, but …. there we went after selling the house. It was a sad day for me when we pulled out of the driveway with all our stuff piled up in a pick up truck, including both dogs and dog houses. Our daughter was a few months old, and I guess she was fine with the move. haha

Next up two more crummy rental houses …

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Thanks for visiting! Peace ☮️

© 2021 BS

House # 9 – Bats, Great Danes, & Rocks

House # 9 – Bats, Great Danes, & Rocks

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First, one more photo I dug up of the trailer house we lived in, in Paris TX.

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You know, way back then in the 1970s we didn’t take photos as much as we do now. I can’t even remember what kind of camera I had. We didn’t have phones that took pictures, or even phones we could carry around with us.

When we took pictures, we had to first buy some film to put in the camera. We’d just hope the pictures we took would be half way good after taking the film somewhere to be developed. Lots of times they weren’t good. It’s so fun these days to be able to see our photos immediately.

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Okay, so we left Greenville TX and moved back to our hometown of Lubbock. I really can’t remember why. The first place we rented was a very small one bedroom/kitchen/living room/bath in a 4-plex. That is, there were 4 apartments in a row all hooked together. There were 4 more across the parking lot.

Things I remember from this place … we did have a very small fenced in yard, so that was nice since we still had our dog, Freckles.

One night Freckles woke me up growling and staring at the back door. It was pretty scary, and I don’t know what she heard outside.

One day one of the neighbors came hollering out in the parking lot to come see! We had a small laundry room with one washer and one dryer that all residents could use. She said she heard something scary in the washer making a rattling sound. So several of us went over to see what it was. It was a bat! It had gotten down in the washer and couldn’t get out. One of the brave girls put on gloves and reached in and let him free.

One of the other neighbors had a small VW bug car. They also had two Great Dane dogs, and they’d put the dogs in the car and go driving around. It was funny to see those big dogs with their heads hanging out the windows of that little car.

A sad thing happened, too. One of the neighbors husbands was killed by a freak accident at his work. I think he was one of those people who worked on high power lines, and he was electrocuted.

We really didn’t know any of the neighbors all that well, though.

Oh, this is the time I started painting on rocks, which I done lots of now, off and on.

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Next up … we buy our first house!

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Thanks for visiting! Peace ☮️

© 202 BS

House # 7 1/2 and 8

House # 7 1/2 and  8

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Before I forget, I found this picture from the Paris TX trailer house. That’s me and Freckles 1972.

Me at the kitchen counter and Freckles (black & white dog) looking forward

One fun job I had was at Sears Department Store. I think this may have been in Paris, TX. I got to dress the mannequins for display on the sales floor. I could pick out what clothes to use, but had to be mindful of what was being featured and advertised at the time. It was always changing from week to week. I wasn’t there for very long, because we moved to another city.

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Let’s see what was the next house.

After the Mr. finished his college, the work situation with his dad wasn’t going so good, so we moved on.

He got a job with the telephone company, Southwestern Bell, as a rep. in Greenville TX.

Our house was in an apartment building on the ground floor. It had a bedroom, bathroom, kitchen, dining room, and living room.

We’d brought the cats and Freckles the dog with us, but the first time I let the cats out they ran away. We never did find them. Freckles was a naughty girl and dug up the carpet in a spot, but we’d put a pet deposit down when we rented. We were doing okay,

I remember a beautiful double rainbow one day.

I got a job at the S & H Green Stamp center. These were trading stamps you’d collect from purchases, and fill up books by sticking the stamps in. Then you could trade them in at the center for all kinds of household and other items. That was a fun job. I worked the counter counting books.

This picture is from the Greenville TX house. Our Christmas tree by the dining room table and a wooden fish wind chime hanging on the door.

Then me sitting reading in a chair with Freckles chilling out on the floor.

Then we decided to move back to our hometown of Lubbock TX for some reason. That will be the next two houses. 🙂

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Thanks for visiting! Peace ☮️

© 2021 BS